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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

Smartphone hacker Charlie Miller was scheduled to present an attack today at the Black Hat USA 2012 security conference, demonstrating what he claims are security vulnerabilities in the NFC peer-to-peer and tag-reading features of Android phones, as well as on Nokia’s N9 device.

The SIMalliance trade group and GlobalPlatform standards organization say they are working on what they predict will become a “de-facto standard” for the way apps on NFC phones communicate with secure elements.

NFC phone software from SIM vendor group the SIMalliance that helps phone app developers tie into the secure elements on NFC phones is getting strong support from mobile operators but not from Google, at least not yet.

Samsung Electronics predicts the release of the NFC version of its flagship Galaxy S II next month will boost the popularity of the technology in various markets, said Hankil Yoon, vice president for product strategy in Samsung's mobile communications division.

PayPal today unveiled its first NFC-based service, demonstrating peer-to-peer payments facilitated by users tapping their Google Nexus S NFC phones together.

Sony Ericsson is the latest smartphone maker to commit to NFC, with NXP Semiconductors announcing today that the Japanese-Swedish phone vendor has chosen NXP’s NFC chips for its Android-based Xperia phones.

Google is officially launching its NFC-based Google Offers service today in Portland, Ore., with executives yesterday unveiling more details of what some are calling the search giant's planned “Groupon killer.”

Google has unveiled its NFC Google Wallet, which the Web giant hopes will usher in a "new era of commerce," using its Nexus S handset and, later, other Android NFC devices.

Google has confirmed it will be making a “partner announcement” concerning its NFC mobile-commerce initiative, which will be held tomorrow in New York.

An announcement by Citigroup and MasterCard Worldwide with Google of an NFC-based payment service is expected by the end of the week, sources told NFC Times.